A gloomy Monday night in East Atlanta brought about an eclectic mix of local music capped off with the mighty World/Inferno Friendship Society at The EARL.
Jeremy Ray kicked off the festivities with a raucous acoustic set in the vein of contemporaries like Tim Barry and Chuck Ragan. He seemed to have quite the following with the local crowd and was also giddy with excitement to the fact that he gets to open up for World/Inferno.
Next up was The Bicycle Eaters. They are a local instrumental band lead by multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Butzer. In a way they brought on that classical World/Inferno Sound complete with a Xylophone, Cello, piano, and a melodica placed on top of Jeffrey’s piano. Even though the sound itself lacked any vocals, Jeffrey’s stage banter between songs made up for it. He reminded me of Ben Folds in that regard.
As World/Inferno was set to take the stage late into the night, the booze had already been flowing long before. The crowd was rearing to go. And as the menacing opening drumbeat to “Tattoos Fade” commenced, the crowd came alive. What seemed like a dwindling crowd suddenly felt like a packed house with everyone charging the stage. Anyone left behind lounging in the couches in the back of the room were chastised by frontman Jack Terricloth until they made their way out of the shadows for the ensuing madness.
The World/Inferno charged through a set that clocked in at over an hour. They had a posted setlist, but by the midpoint they had deviated from it in favor of crowd requests. It was as if to make sure that every audience member went home happy in knowing that they got their money’s worth and their favorite song heard. They played many of their classics with some new material peppered in.
They capped off the night with an encore that included the classic “Only Anarchists are Pretty”, which was done at such a low level that the crowd were the ones doing the singing duties. It was a sense of pure joy and love for the music that I have not witnessed in quite a while. I cannot wait for this band to return to Atlanta. If you are reading this, I expect to see you there as well.
Written and shot by Peter Sigmund. Check out Peter’s photos from the show:
